Iran fires missiles at Israel prompting UN chief's criticism

Israel declared UN chief Antonio Guterres “persona non grata” on Wednesday, accusing him of failing to specifically condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

“This is an anti-Israel Secretary-General who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers.”

Katz added that Guterres, who he said supported the “murderers of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran, the mothership of global terror, will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN for generations to come”.

Following Iran’s missile attack on Israel late Tuesday, Guterres condemned the “broadening conflict in the Middle East”, slamming “escalation after escalation” in the region. “This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire,” said Guterres.

The attack was in response to the killings of Iran-backed militant leaders, sending Israelis to shelters and prompting alarm across the region.

“A short while ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said, as sirens sounded across Israel.

After about an hour, the military announced there was no longer a threat and “it was decided that it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas across the country”, with a “large number” of Iranian missiles intercepted.

Reports said between 150 and 200 missiles had been fired in the attack.

It was Iran’s second attack on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Explosions could be heard over Jerusalem, while rescuers said two people were injured by shrapnel in central Israel.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA said the Islamic republic had launched “a missile attack on Tel Aviv”, Israel’s commercial hub.

Its Revolutionary Guards Corps said the attack was in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week as well as the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran bombing widely blamed on Israel.

Israeli airspace was closed with all flights diverted, a spokesman for the airport authority said.

Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, which lie between Iran and Israel, closed their airspace too. As the missiles made their way to Israel from the east, blasts were heard over the Jordanian capital Amman, as Israel’s allies moved to intercept them. Jordan said its air defences responded to missiles and drones.

US President Joe Biden ordered the military to “aid Israel’s defence” and shoot down Iranian missiles, the White House said. The Pentagon said the US was boosting its forces in the Middle East by a “few thousand” troops.

While Iran-backed groups across the region had already been drawn into the Gaza war, sparked after Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Tehran had largely refrained from direct attacks on its regional foe.

This week the Israeli military said troops had started “targeted ground raids” in south Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border, though officials have provided few details of the scale of the operation or its timeframe.

Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing will bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any troops to confront Israel.

In Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said the Israeli offensive did not amount to a “ground incursion” and Hezbollah denied any troops had crossed the border.

A Lebanese army source said the force had “not observed any penetration by Israeli enemy forces”. There was no way to immediately verify the claims, which came as Israel struck south Beirut, Damascus and Gaza, despite international calls for restraint to avoid a regional conflagration.

Israel’s defence minister has warned the fight was far from over. Israel seeks to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities and restore security to the north, where tens of thousands have been displaced by nearly a year of cross-border fire.

Cape Times